As is known, medicinal capsules normally comprise a substantially cup-shaped bottom shell; a top shell for closing the bottom shell; and a given quantity of drug enclosed inside the bottom shell. The top and bottom shells are normally made of hard gel, which is rapidly dissolved by gastric acids to release the enclosed drug within a controlled length of time.
Currently used machines for producing medicinal capsules receive the drug and the empty capsules separately at the input, and supply, at the output, a succession of capsules containing a predetermined quantity of drug.
Such machines normally comprise a pocket conveyor for feeding a succession of capsules along a path extending through a supply station where the empty capsules are oriented and inserted successively inside the pockets on the conveyor; a parting station where each top shell is detached from the respective bottom shell to open the capsule; a cleaning station where any processing residue is removed from inside each bottom shell; a dispensing station where a predetermined quantity of drug is fed into each bottom shell; a closing station where each top shell is put back onto the respective bottom shell; and, finally, a pickup station where the medicinal capsules are removed off the pocket conveyor and sent to a packing unit.
The marketing of new types of controlled-release medicinal capsules, however, now calls for supplying production machines separately with the drug and the top and bottom shells. To do this, various units for orienting and supplying top shells have been devised, but which are relatively complex and fail to provide for a sufficiently high hourly output rate.